


Memories in C major

by PlanetaryMusical



Series: ...and a million reasons to survive [4]
Category: A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
Genre: Birthday, Childhood Memories, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23854054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlanetaryMusical/pseuds/PlanetaryMusical
Summary: Albert had never liked his birthdays. They'd always seemed to be even worse than any other day.Maybe this year it could be different...Gift for DieAstra :)
Relationships: Anna Barnes/Albert Stark (Million Ways to Die in the West)
Series: ...and a million reasons to survive [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709638
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Memories in C major

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DieAstra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieAstra/gifts).



> Hey there,  
> This little piece is a gift for DieAstra and her inspiring thoughts about my favourite little family in the West :)
> 
> I imagined it to take place shortly after "Lullaby" and "Missing". Ray is about two months old 😉

"Put it right there, across from the fireplace. Yep...That's perfect."

Anna sighed, throwing a pitying but grateful look at the two men in front of her as she saw their heated, sweaty faces. Panting they reached out for the cups of water she handed them. 

"I can't thank you enough for bringing it over, guys...I definitely owe you one. Millie, tonight their bill is on me."  
She gazed over to the chubby saloonkeeper who stood in the door frame, watching the scenery with a smirk on her lips.

"For everything and everyone, deary? You sure? I don't even believe that old thing was ever worth half of what they booze and bang away in one night...It's the Morgan brothers, after all." 

Bob and Arnie dropped their gazes, a bashful smile on their lips, probably glad that their cheeks were already blushed by the heat and exhaustion. Not that they had anything to hide, was it no secret in town that they practically lived in the whorehouse. What actually was the reason for Millie to grab them for this delivery in the first place. 

Anna smiled at them, winking encouragingly.  
"For everything and everyone."

***

Anna watched the carriage disappear behind the big barn before closing the door, still a smile on her face. It didn't vanish as she returned to the living room, lifted little babbling Ray out of his bassinet and turned over to her newest piece of furniture. 

"Look, honey, what we got for daddy's birthday."  
She cupped his head and blew a kiss on his temple.  
Ray's round blue eyes remained on the huge wooden case for a few seconds before he continued chewing on his hand, beginning to get a little twitchy in his mother's arms.

"You're hungry?"

Anna looked at the clock on the shelf.

Half past four. Albert would probably not return before six. Enough time, she decided.

She got herself cozy in the rocking chair at the fireplace. "There you are", she said, smiling as she latched on her son, leaning back happily at the sight of her husband's birthday present. 

The old piano from the saloon.  
As she'd heard about Millie just wanting to throw it out after inheriting another one from her recently deceased brother, Anna had instantly applied for taking it. No matter that the lid was covered with stains of whiskey glasses and burn marks of smoke (and she didn't want to know what else more), no matter the music stand was long gone, no matter highest key was missing while the lowest was mute.  
She had to get it for Albert, for she knew it meant something to him. He had played for her the evening she had moved in on his farm and he'd taken her out to celebrate. That they had defeated the most feared villain throughout the West, that his gang was imprisoned in the next city, that the two of them could be together now.  
He had sat down at the piano and just had played. A melody she had never heard before, but so beautiful that she almost could've cried. She couldn't take her eyes off him, off his hands, these hands that refused to hold a gun properly but played the keys with such an ability and devotion like they were made for nothing else.  
She'd learn later that night they were made for some more, not less breathtaking, but she would never forget that moment when she'd watched him play, eyes closed, totally diving into the music.

Anna looked down at her baby, saw that he'd fallen asleep through the feeding. She kissed his hair and gently carried him back into his bassinet before checking the clock again. Past five.  
She went out to fill up the bucket with water for wiping the piano best as possible, reminding herself to take one of the big blankets from the wardrobe for covering. He shouldn't get to see it first thing when he returned. And birthday presents definitely needed to be unwrapped. 

***

Albert was done. He was absolutely done. His legs hurt for he had to run after Bridget literally all day to keep her to the flock, to keep her from bitching around with Mildred, to keep her from eating nettles. And Ron hadn't been better than his mother, getting himself stuck in the same gap in the fence a bazillion times.  
"Thanks for the help, buddy", Albert grumbled at Plugger, who'd preferred chasing mice into their holes today instead of supporting his keeper in the sheep matters. Summed up, it had been a shitty long day out there with the sun roasting Albert's neck mercilessly, ants trying to invade his jam sandwich and a hand-sized spider on his water bottle.  
All he wanted was to go home, take a cooling bath and grab a bite before crashing down on the pillows.  
He didn't care it was his birthday. Screw it!His birthday never had been a special day for him, and if so, it even had seemed to be worse than any other day.  
Last year he had woken up with a fever that would bond him to the bed for almost a week and leave Anna to care for everything all alone, if it hadn't been for the help of Ruth and Edward as far as they could've managed it. Albert had felt awful to be in their dept, even more awful than his fever had made him feel.  
And the year before that it had been the day when his sheep had decided to graze up Charlie Blanche's ranch, resulting in Albert's involuntary acquaintance with one of Charlie's bullets and his girlfriend breaking up with him a day after. Not that he'd been sad forever about the latter, but still. Birthdays were curse-days, he was sure, and today seemed to be no exception.  
Besides, not many people had known when his birthday was, except for his parents, but they'd never paid it any big attention or had bothered to give him a present, if they'd even remembered it at all. Apart from them, it was only Edward, usually coming around then, clapping him on the shoulder with a cheerful noise and buying him a beer at the saloon, though mostly confusing the correct day. According to his best friend, Albert's birthday was somewhere in between May 20 and June 17. Close enough, and Albert appreciated the effort after all.  
And of course, Anna knew and bothered about it. Not only because she was his wife, but also because she'd asked him very early into their friendship. He remembered himself just shrugging it off after her question, but he'd been touched by the fact that she cared. Same as this morning, when she had woken him up with bringing a cup of coffee to his bedside, along with a candle and a big cookie on a plate.  
"Happy birthday, honey. I swear, no pot cookie this time... Probably."  
She'd blinked, smiling at his baffled, still sleepy face before joining him in bed, softly placing Ray between them.

Albert bit his lips shamefully as he remembered that beautiful start of his day, admitting it maybe wasn't such a bad day after all.  
Still, he was hungry and tired and exhausted and longed for nothing but his loved ones and a place to put his strained muscles to rest. 

He reached the farm with a deep sigh of release, led the flock inside the corral before filling up their water troughs. He knelt down in front of Bridget and Ron, giving them a reproachful look and cleared his throat.  
"Tomorrow you better behave, you two."  
Their low, dumb bleating made him chuckle. He tousled their heads before he got up and whistled at Plugger to follow him to the house.

***

"Hey, honey."  
Anna welcomed him with a genuine smile, just placing the steaming pot of stew on the kitchen table.

"Hey."  
He closed the door behind him and leaned against it. Exhaling deeply he took off his hat and tossed it on the bench.  
"Damn, what a day out there. Bridget and Ron almost killed me, I tell you..."

He came closer, pointedly dragging his feet as he cuddled up to her, leaving a peck on her temple.

"I'm so tired. And hungry... And sweaty... But so tired... Meh..."

Anna chuckled, patting his dusty, sticky cheek.

"Uh, that's a big dilemma then, dear." 

She loved her cute, whiny Albert, craving for her to pity him. She couldn't help but lovingly tease him, every time. Though now she actually couldn't unsee the exhaustion in his eyes. Definitely must've been a rough day. 

"How about a bowl of stew first and you take a bath after? Tub is ready."

He sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You're the best", he muffled at her neck. 

***

Albert felt like being reborn as he returned into the house, stomach full, bathed and dressed in fresh clothes. He smiled seeing Anna in her chair at the fireplace, Ray already sleeping in her arms. 

"Better?"  
She winked. 

"Better. Definitely."  
A few seconds he lingered on the sight of his beloved, as he winced in confusion, turning his head towards the wall. 

"Wait... Where's the dresser? And the picture? And...What's that?" 

He hadn't recognised it earlier, due to his condition obviously.

She smiled.

"It's all in the old shed. I needed a little space in here for your birthday present."

Albert moved closer, touching the cotton blanket. Baffled. 

"You have to unwrap it." 

He scoffed silently, before tearing the blanket down, unwilling to believe his eyes. 

"Anna..."

With a gaping mouth he just stood there like a child at the christmas tree, eyes wide in absolute astonishment.

"You like it?"

He wasn't able to reply, felt like walking on clouds, gently touching the worn out wooden lid, like he had to touch it to believe it.

Grandpa Joe's piano. Well, not his actually, as it was owned by the saloon for ages, no one could exactly say who once bought it and placed it there, but he'd played it as long as Albert remembered. 

Joseph Stark had been a decent and kind man, a sheep herder just like every other guy in the Stark family ever since, but he'd always been different. While his father and brothers were all known as a bunch of rough mannered drunkards, who'd treated their sheep hardly better than their wives and children, Joe had have a big heart, always an open ear for everyone, including Albert, and last but not least a deep love for music. Whenever he'd enter the saloon for his occasional afterwork pint, it wouldn't take long until someone would ask him to play a tune for the folks to sing along.  
But what Albert mostly recalled were those quiet Sunday afternoons when the saloon had been almost empty and his grandpa had taken him there for a soda, his personal highlight of the week before starting off again the simple, straining run of school til twelve and herding til dawn. But the Sundays had been their own, just him and his grandpa at the old, shabby piano. The piano grandpa Joe had taught him to play. The piano that now was standing in Albert’s living room, right in front of him.

He opened the lid, his eyes instantly closing with the sound of the keys his fingers couldn't help but touch.  
C major. The first chord he'd learned.

The reverb sent a soft shiver up his arm and through his body, as all the precious memories were flooding him, causing a grateful warmth in his chest and a tear in his eye. He turned his head, smiled at his wife coming over to him, Ray bonded close to her chest in a shawl, still sleeping. She leaned her head against Albert’s, returning the smile.  
"Happy birthday", she whispered. "Millie got a new one and I just couldn't let it join the trash..."

"Oh, Anna...I love you", he breathed at her cheek as he finally his voice again. "I don't know what to say...How could I ever thank you?" He looked at her admiringly. 

She smirked, tearing a chair from out of the corner.

"How about you playing me something?" 

Albert smiled back, sitting down with a shimmer in his eyes. And when he started to play, Anna felt like being sent back in time, as she recognised the melody, the tune of their first day as a couple.  
She sighed silently as she leaned against the piano, unable to take her eyes off her husband, his face so at ease, the strain of the long day obviously falling from his shoulders with every move of his hands above the keys. 

"Honey, that was beautiful", Anna said as the last tone faded out. She got down on Albert's lap, placing a kiss on his forehead. "Not that you had to at all, but you couldn't have said anything better to thank me." She stroked through his hair.  
"Sometimes, music is better than words..."

He chuckled warmly, laying his arms around her and his son, drawing them close in deepest gratitude for the perfect ending of the most beautiful birthday he ever had.

"That's some wise saying. I have to keep that in mind."

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a link of our beautiful Seth MacFarlane playing the piano. 😍
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/B6kIdQzBXiE/?igshid=6wx02fhrn8i


End file.
